Wednesday, October 30, 2013

It's Permanent!

A tattoo states a message and tells a story, but what it
says and how it’s told matters.
Permanent ink really stays on the skin, and hopefully your story is
worth telling again and again. The
continuity of your tattoo hopefully conveys a pattern or symbol worth
continuing. I associate tattoos with
regret. A generalization and negative
stigma of a spiritually rich art form, I attest there are particular examples of
unfortunate stories; ones worth telling maybe once. The cynic is a disappointed optimist; I guess
I have seen too many egregious tattoos, ones with a story not worth telling,
clichéd patterns, and emotionally driven mistakes. Tramp stamps, barbed wire, and cruddy
expressions disappoint me because I want and believe there is more to
tattoo. In Dr. Ellis’ book, Tattooing The World, she states, “When
tattoo—sacred in its home contexts—is bought, borrowed, or stolen, the designs’
meaning comes unmoored…it is also true that in this process, the patterns may
be treated as pure form. The people, ways of being, and lands that shaped the
designs may be removed from consideration, treated as not present (consigned to
the distant past or to an unreachable place) if they are acknowledged at all”
(Ellis, 18,19). I infer that in the
process of stealing and borrowing ideas the tattoo becomes “unmoored” or
unanchored. This feeling of being lost
at sea translates to what I see. Bad
tattoos, and we all know what I’m talking about, seem like muted expressions
that are later realized as a regrettable decision. Mistakes are made when we try to find expression
through avenues we do not understand and appreciate. The misconception with a lot of designs and
tattoos leads to my cynical standpoint.
I defend my mindset by asking you to look around, to see the abysmal representations
of the richly spiritual art form, to witness the stories of regret told by
those emotionally driven or deceived people. I do not abhor tattoos, in fact if it is used
or expressed in the ‘right’ way I think they are awesome and deepen my
appreciation for the individual. But when
they are not, boy do I have some heated words for their misplaced ink.